LITERATURE
didn’t feel particularly deprived for not having books actually.”
‘I grew up in quite a
Curiously, he says the main consequence is that it means he has
really no knowledge or appreciation of children’s literature.
The eldest of four children, he was “spoilt rotten” by his
complex society where
mother, who worked in the local shirt factory, and his father,
who was a bread man (among his earliest plays are The Factory
the nuance was
Girls (1982), set in a shirt factory, and The Bread Man (1991).
“[Playwriting] wouldn’t have entered my family’s, and my
extraordinarily
extended family’s consciousness actually,” he shares. “The big
opportunity was the scholarship that came in after Donagh
O’Malley brought in free education. I was about 14. It let me get
powerful. And I grew
educated at secondary school, college, and let me do a
postgraduate degree in medieval studies. I was absolutely
up in a house with a
determined that if that was up for grabs, I was going to take it.
It was the first time anyone in my family had ever really gone to
college. We were aspiring to the professions, there was no
really clever woman,
question about that. Our parents pushed us in that direction —
to make the most of your own ability — and to make the most
whose main intellectual
of what few things poor people had at the time.”
They may not have had books, but they did have “newspapers
weapon was words’
and television, which is the great subverter, a wonderful,
wonderful source of enlightenment at the time”, he says. “From
the word go we were taught there was a world beyond this
island. That may have done damage to my Celtic standing,” he The journey towards his Tony award (for Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
jokes, “but all the more standing for that.” in 1997, with Janet McAteer as an unlikely, but brilliant, Nora),
He continues: “I grew up in quite a complex society where the and his current standing as one of Ireland’s greatest living
nuance was extraordinarily powerful. And I grew up in a house playwrights was a steady, if unpredictable, one. “When I came
with a really clever woman, whose main intellectual weapon to Dublin first, I did go to the Abbey and the Gate. Then,
was words.” His plays and modern versions of the classics are towards the end of university, I got involved in Dramsoc. That
littered with strong female characters. “From an early age I was was the first-ever, big, active engagement with it.” His “big
attuned to the barbarity — how to wound through language, inspiration”, Professor Terence Dolan (author of A Dictionary of
and how to charm and lull through language. I drank that in like Hiberno-English), fostered a “very deep love of Chaucer”. “The
mother’s milk. I think a lot of Irish people have that capacity by medieval influence is in the writing, without drawing too much
reason of the way Irish women operate. They have been so attention to it.” It’s no surprise to hear that McGuinness
deprived of formal power. Their great outlet was speech, song specialised in linguistics, given the extraordinary linguistic
and laughter.” sensitivity that informs his writing. His version of Strindberg’s
Offering an example of the Irish-English, English-English and Miss Julie, which enjoyed a successful run at the Project Arts
American-English that co-exist in his play Someone Who’ll Centre in February, is a prime example.
Watch Over Me, McGuinness attributes his hyper-sensitivity for McGuinness has developed into a very rare combination: a
language to “that social training I had in Donegal. Everything practical man of the theatre, who is widely respected by actors
goes back to Donegal, everything. There’s no doubt about that”. for the useful notes he can offer to help unlock a character and
The 1971 transition from the little town of Buncrana to the a performance for them, and an inspirational teacher, who can
big metropolis of Dublin was unforgettably traumatic for the put his students through a rigorous training and interrogation
budding writer. “It was absolutely heart-wrenching. I knew I of the texts he places so strategically on his courses. “I try to
wanted to come here, but I was grief-stricken and physically sick teach the plays that I do versions of. That time spent with the
for the first year. I understand the meaning of homesick. It took innards and the skeleton of the text, things suddenly start to
me a year to adjust, or to get some kind of bearings. Then, in reveal themselves and patterns start to emerge.” One expertise
second year, I made friends, and was doing English and Medieval informs the other. “You can never lose sight of the fact that,
English, and I loved it. But the uprooting was so savage that I when you are reading a play, your reading is about a physical
could never do that again of my own free will. I have been activity. Your reading is about action, about things happening
offered a load of things in the US, but I just couldn’t go.” on a stage. I try to emphasise that an awful lot in the rehearsal
UCD CONNECTIONS PAGE THIRTY ONE
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84